Friesians are large horses and like all
large breeds take a little longer to mature. Typically your Friesian
will continue growing and developing in body up to five and possibly
in some breeding lines up to seven years of age.
Generally Friesians are bred at 3 years of age though this needs to be
an individual assessment by each owner as some horses may not be
sufficiently mature to breed at this age. It is always a good idea to have your
mare inspected by a vet prior to breeding to ensure that the mare is
sufficiently mature, healthy and capably of carrying a pregnancy to
term.

There are also a number of decisions to
be made regarding the stallion selection and method of breeding.

Do I
breed to a Studbook Stallion?

how do I go about it given that
there are no Studbook Stallions in either Australia or New Zealand?

what
are the chances of success and likely costs of breeding using AI or
ET?

Do I use an
Australian Breeding Permit
Stallion?

What will be the registration status of my
foals?

How do I
know if a particular stallion is suited to my mare?

How do I find out
the quality of the foals produced from a particular stallion?

What is
the 'In-breeding Co-efficient' and how does it effect me and my foals?

Hopefully the information on these pages will go some way to providing
you with a few answers and raise even more questions that you will
endeavour to find the answers to before you proceed with your
breeding. The information on these pages is intended to raise
awareness of the numerous considerations breeders should take into
account when breeding their Friesian.

Each animal should be considered individually, what is appropriate for one Friesian may not
be the best choice for another Friesian. Other pages you should visit
are
Registration, and
KFPS.

ROAD MAP TO PRODUCING A
FOALBOOK FOAL

Foalbook Mare

to

Stb Stallion

produces

Foalbook Foal

Foalbook Mare

to

Permit Stallion

produces

BBk1 Foal

BBk1
Mare

to

Stb
Stallion

produces

BBk1
Foal

to

Stb
Stallion

produces

BBk1
Foal

to

Stb
Stallion

produces

Foalbook
Foal

BBk1
Mare

to

Permit
Stallion

produces

BBk1
Foal

As you can see
from the above map, the quickest way to breed an KFPS Foalbook Foal is
to start with a Foalbook Mare ( naturally the same result is
achieved using Studbook Mare, Ster Mare etc etc but as a minimum your
mare should be at least Foalbook) and breed her to a KFPS approved
Studbook Stallion. NO other
combination will produce a Foalbook Foal within a single generation.

The only other
route to breeding a Foalbook Foal is through the breeding of a B Book1
mare for three (3) consecutive generations to KFPS approved Studbook Stallions.
This naturally will take some years as not only do you have to achieve
an AI full term pregnancy each time but you have to produce fillies to
continue the line of breeding. It would be reasonable to assume that a
number of colts would also be produced whilst attempting this route
and in that situation you would need to breed the mare again and try
for a filly the next year and then continue on until you achieved
three 'unbroken' generations from Studbook Stallions. The third
generation foal will be eligible for entry to the KFPS Foalbook. The
other draw back is that along the way quality may may sacrificed for
expediency.

Breeding
purebred Foalbook Friesian foals is certainly a challenge though the
satisfaction derived from breeding a fine example of one of the
equine world's most magnificent animals is ample reward for your
efforts and knowing you have done your very best to add to the numbers of
quality Friesians in Australia or New Zealand should also give you a
sense of pride. Good luck with your endeavours and we hope you are
blessed with lots of magnificent Friesians. Any one can buy a great
horse, it takes dedication, knowledge and passion to breed a great
horse.